CHAPTER 22: ANOTHER TRIP BEGINS

Moon Continent Explorer’s Guild, West Coast Branch, Team Seekers’ Room

Ryan woke up the next morning, and on the table in the team’s room, he saw a note, in English, that read ‘Go to Cavernous Canyon mystery dungeon. The laboratory is on the other side. To get to the entrance, head west from Miobach City. From an anonymous pokemon.’

Odd, Ryan thought, I don’t remember writing this, and Mew never said anything about a note. At least this’ll make it easier to explain to my teammates.

Once his teammates were all awake, the glaceon showed them the note.

“What laboratory?” Lena asked.

“Uh… it came to me in a dream,” Ryan said. It wasn’t technically a lie since it was during a dream when Mew had told him. “Maybe if we go there, we can get a lead on-“

“-recovering my memories?” the sneasel interrupted. “Now that I remember my name, I’m starting to remember more things about myself spontaneously. I don’t think I need help on that front anymore.”

Ryan waved a paw dismissively. “No, no, I mean how we transformed into pokemon,” he said. And by we, I mean you, your dad, and Kori, he added silently.

“Ohhh… that makes more sense… I guess.”

“We should probably tell the guildmaster about this,” Terry said. “I have a feeling it will take us a while, so they should know where we are and what we’re up to.”

Lena raised her eyebrows. “Huh, Terry, that’s actually a great idea. Never thought you’d be the sensible one.”

“Yeah, well… you don’t get as far as I have in life without having some sensibility.”

Miobach City, Central Park

After making Felix and Erin aware of their plans, they departed. Although the teleportation function on the badges mostly only works if teleporting to a place the owner has already been, it also allows the user to go to Miobach City regardless of whether the user has been there or not. So, the quartet teleported themselves to the city.

When they left, Ryan was, at most, expecting a city that looked like it could have been in Renaissance Italy. What he was greeted with instead was steel-and-glass skyscrapers towering over the relatively small patch of nature they had teleported to on all sides. He tucked his tail between his legs, feeling a bit nervous, especially since, despite there being some distance from him and the actual city, he could still hear all of the noise of passersby. Back at the village, there was still plenty of noise, yet it had an air of friendliness and community to it. This chatter just felt… empty to him, somehow, and it made him uncomfortable because he had grown unused to it. Not to mention, the miasmic air permeated even the more natural park they were currently in, and he was not a fan of the lack of clean air. He wasn’t the only one either: Ben seemed to have it even worse. He wondered why but then remembered that Ben had never been anywhere like this before.

“Erm, guys…” the litten said shakily as they headed for the street. “Something about this city doesn’t sit right with me. Can we just get to the metro system already? The less time we spend in this dreadful place and the sooner we get out of here, the better I’ll feel…”

As they wound through the crowds of the city streets, trying to find a metro station with the line that leads to the border where the city meets the badlands, Ryan thought about how he kind of agreed with Ben. To think, I used to want to live in a downtown area as a human… now we’ve spent maybe ten minutes here and I already miss so many things: the fresh, clean air, the far more open spaces, the relative peace and quiet, the warm breeze on my fur, the dirt and grass under my paws… actual color… He looked around at the buildings, and nearly all of them were black, white, grey, or a combination of those, with maybe a bit of beige at best. He sighed with disappointment. How can people, or especially pokemon, live like this? This city… it’s honestly kind of suffocating. I can’t wait to be out of here… I just want to go home.

He shook his head out of annoyance as he walked. Just then, he saw a hint of color out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head in that direction to see what it was. To his disappointment, it was just a poster ad for a TV with an OLED display. He would have been surprised about the advanced technology that pokemon seemingly had in this city if it weren’t for the fact that he was disappointed by simply being in such a colorless, dull environment. Ryan ended up deciding he wanted to check out the store in question, as he wanted to get Ben a gift to cheer him up, and what better gift than something you can’t get anywhere else in the entire world?

Terry raised an eyebrow when Lena explained this. “But why can’t you get that anywhere else?” he asked the glaceon as he investigated a DSLR camera on display in the Gross Store. “What’s keeping… whoever makes these from selling them elsewhere?”

“I have no idea,” Lena said.

“I think it’s because the residents live in such a boring looking place,” Ben said sullenly as Terry plucked a few boxes, one containing a camera, another with a solar-powered charger hub, and the others having something else, from one of the lower shelves, placing them into a bag for Lena to carry. “It’s so obvious that they keep all of the advanced stuff to themselves, because if they didn’t no one would have any reason, or desire, to live here!”

The glaceon gestured at a display table with a row of laptops on it. “He may have a point, you know. Ben didn’t even know what a laptop was until, like, two weeks ago, even though they clearly exist in this world!”

“Ryan, you’re not helping,” Lena said as Terry used the rotom-cash-register to ring up the items. “There’s probably a perfectly good explanation for all of this. I mean, the village still uses gem-based technology, while the city has proper electricity.” She pointed a claw at the fluorescent lights overhead. “We probably wouldn’t be able to use most of this stuff.”

Ben was about to retort to her, but the sneasel covered the rabbit’s mouth to keep him from speaking. “Okay, now you’re clearly getting agitated. I completely understand, it frustrates me, too, but I need you to calm down. Just take some deep breaths and calm down.”

Ben did as she said. He was still a bit overwhelmed by the city’s assault on his senses, but he definitely felt better than before.

“Thanks, Lena,” Ben said. “I guess this city just has a way of imposing cynicism anyone who enters it.”

“You can say that again,” the sneasel said, then holding up the paper bag with their items. “I believe we’re done here, and not a moment too soon because we should really get out of this city. I think the dirty air is starting to get to him; he broke character for a minute there. Not to mention taking too long here will slow us down at getting to the badlands.”

The glaceon winced behind her while Terry climbed onto his back. “Ooh, yeah, we should really get out of here… apologies for the detour…”

Not long after leaving the store, and after picking up some of the best fish tacos Ryan or Terry had ever eaten from a street vendor for lunch, they found a metro station with an orange line connection, which was the one they needed to get to the badlands. After purchasing four tickets, they rode the next train all the way to the end of the line, which was just on the outskirts of the outermost suburbs of the city. In fact, the station itself was on the last street corner before the paved road dead ended into the wild prairies that lay beyond. They took one last look back at the skyline in the distance before ascending a hill which, after descending on the other side, completely blocked out the previous view of the city. The team was now in completely untouched, pristine wilderness, just what the litten needed after the last several hours. Ryan was also grateful for the peace and quiet.

“Hokay,” the glaceon sighed, relieved, “the entrance to the dungeon is still over sixty miles from here, and the dungeon is twenty floors deep, so it’ll be at least three more days before we can actually investigate the laboratory.” He took a look to the west and saw that the sun was rapidly approaching the horizon. It was very picturesque, and he would’ve sighed with contentment at the sight if not for what it signaled. “Wait, the sun’s already starting to set?! How long were we in that city?” He sighed. “We didn’t even bring tents or anything. I guess it’s sleeping out under the stars for us, not that I have any issue with that. I’d actually love to-“

“Who says we have to sleep under the stars?” Terry said. “When we were at that store, I bought-” he paused as he pulled a small box out of the bag Lena was still carrying- “this!”

His teammates looked at him funny.

“A box?” Ryan asked curiously.

Terry shook his head. “No, it’s what’s in the box.” He opened the small cardboard box, and inside was a grey metal cube. Lena rolled her eyes.

“Looks like a box to me,” she deadpanned.

The pachirisu shook his head again. “Nope, it’s actually… a Portable Storage Box Access Point! …according to the manual. We can pull out whatever we want from our personal storage, regardless of whether there’s a storage box nearby!” Terry began pressing small keys on the side. “Now excuse me while I get our tents out here…”

Suddenly, next to Ben, the tents materialized, already set up, much to the impression of his teammates. An amazed litten then began lightening his own load into the box after Terry passed one to him, not paying too much attention to what he was storing.

“Huh,” Lena said, “an impulse purchase that’s actually useful!”

“I guess this means we’re stopping for the night…” Ryan said.

By the time the campfire was lit, and the chili was stewing, the sun had set and a breeze set in over the dark plain, rapidly cooling down the area. Terry hummed in thought for a moment.

“I didn’t really think about it before, but this lab is- er, was run by humans in the past, right, Ryan?

“Why are you asking me?” the glaceon responded, then nodded. “But I’d guess that it was, yeah.”

“I wonder what kinds of advanced technology- and I mean by our own universe’s standards, not like what we saw in the city which at best was mostly on the same level- we’ll find there. If they had commercial space travel, then they surely have at least something on the secrets of interdimensional travel! …then again, this might be more like a bioengineering type of lab, sort of like… that movie about dinosaurs that I can’t remember the name of for the life of me, and bioengineering is not exactly something I know a lot about.”

Lena hummed with interest. “I think I remember, back as a human, I might have watched a movie like that.” She smirked. “Funny how these concepts happen in both worlds.”

Ben just sat back, totally lost as the three former humans began discussing human pop culture, like movies and TV shows that they’ve watched. He tuned them out, occasionally stirring the pot as he stared at the stars. Not many were visible because of light pollution, as they really weren’t that far from Miobach City.

“I still find it interesting that I managed to find fictional worlds that are, apparently, just an interdimensional portal away from my own world. Not only that but apparently pop culture transcends universes! Really puts things into perspective,” Terry mused.

The pair of ice types just stared at him silently.

“Um, how exactly does it put things into perspective?” Lena asked.

“Yeah,” Ryan added, “it definitely makes sense to me that two people in different universes would come up with the same idea.”

“Well, uh… you know, um… the thing is… hmm… I don’t know actually. I’m not sure why I said that.”

“…never mind,” the sneasel said, walking up to the pot and taking the spoon from Ben. She stirred to check the consistency of the chili to ensure it was cooked all the way, and it seemed to be.

“Oh, I think the chili’s finished!” Lena said.

“Finally!” Ben shouted, shoving his arms out impatiently. “I’m starving over here, plus maybe now we can move onto a topic of conversation that I’m not totally ignorant about.” The litten served himself some chili as he spoke. “Let’s talk about the lab again. The information in this lab will almost definitely be helpful- not sure for what, but I’m sure it’ll come to us soon enough.” He sat down on the ground, bowl in paw. “But… a human lab uses computers, right? And computers use electricity?” He took a spoonful of the chili. “The pokemon in the city probably don’t even know about that lab, so it probably doesn’t have electricity.” Ben sighed. “I hope this doesn’t all turn out to be a big waste of time.”

“Eh,” Ryan said, shrugging. “A place like that probably has a backup power source of its own of some kind, like a big battery… even if it hasn’t been used in hundreds of years. I guess we’ll have to hope for the best, that the equipment isn’t deteriorated like those poke balls I saw in the northern guild.” He put a forepaw to his chin. “Though, it is in a desert, so the air won’t be humid, and I think that’s why electronic stuff deteriorates… I think it’ll be fine.” He shook his head. “In any case, I think we should eat up now. The food smells very tasty, I’m very hungry, and we’ve got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow, and the next day too.”

And with that, the quartet dug into their food. Then, they discussed an assortment of topics well into the starlit night before heading into their tents to rest up for the long journey ahead of them.